


Castle on a cloud

by Disneyqueen626



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 17:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5342072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disneyqueen626/pseuds/Disneyqueen626
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elphaba's childhood was horrid, but that didn't stop her from dreaming of a life where she doesn't have to work and is treated lovingly.</p><p>Has a somewhat modified version of "Castle on a cloud" from Les Miserables.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Castle on a cloud

The governor was hosting a dinner party. Elphaba wasn't invited. She never was.

After being instructed to keep her green face out of sight, eight-year-old Elphaba was given a too-big broom and told to sweep the kitchen floor. The door had been left open just a crack, enough for her to peek out and watch the adults smiling and laughing. Nessarose was there too, smiling as their father's friends went on about how beautiful she was and it was a shame that she was in a wheelchair. Elphaba longed to be there too, but she knew that if she dared let anyone even get a glimpse of her and her green skin, she'd be sent to her room for a week. Without meals.

Instead, she was told to sweep the kitchen floor. When she wasn't attending to Nessa in some way, Elphaba had to do a horrifying amount of work for an eight-year-old. Her father insisted that Elphaba was obligated, being the reason why Nessa was in a chair and their mother was dead. Elphaba felt guilty every time he said this. But still, she sometimes allowed herself to daydream about a life where she was loved, and her mother was alive.

Elphaba stopped sweeping the gritty floor for a moment to gazed sadly out the window at the falling snow. She began to sing softly.

"There is a castle on a cloud, I like to go there when I sleep, there aren't any floors for me to sweep, not in my castle on a cloud.

"There is a lady, all in white, she holds me and sings me a lullaby, she's nice to see, and she's soft to touch, she says, 'Elphaba, I love you very much.'

"I know a place where no one's lost, I know a place where no one cries. Crying at all is not allowed, not in my castle on a cloud."

Elphaba suddenly caught sight of her father's reflection in the window. She whirled around and quickly started sweeping the floor again.

"Why aren't you sweeping?" he demanded irritably. "Wasting time, pretending you've been good. Better not be slacking! Go, take this bucket and fetch some water from the well in the wood."

Elphaba scrambled to get the bucket as her father muttered, "Never should have raised you. Should have abandoned you on the street when you were born! Would blend right in with the moss scum. The scum of the streets!" Just then, Nessa wheeled herself into the room, wearing the blue bonnet Elphaba had seen her father give her earlier that evening. Elphaba had never once been given a single gift in her eight years.

"Papa!" Nessarose chirped. The governor beamed at his younger daughter. "Sweet Nessa, you look so very beautiful in that little blue hat. You deserve it too. SOME little girls know how behave." He glared at Elphaba when he said that last bit. 

"Still there, Elphaba!?" he barked. "Your tears will do you no good! I told you to get some water from the well in the woods." It was snowing outside and Elphaba didn't have a coat. 

"Please don't make me go out there," she begged.

"Woods!" her father yelled. "Water! Now! Or I'll forget to be nice! You heard me ask for something and I'm not asking again."

This time Elphaba didn't dare beg.

She grabbed the bucket, braced herself, and plunged into the snow covered world, barefoot and coatless.


End file.
